North Carolina Democrats hope that Andrew Whalen can do in the flatlands what he did in the mountains.

Whalen has been named executive of the state Democratic Party and will lead the party as it goes after Republican Sen. Richard Burr's seat next year, Rob Christensen reports.

Whalen, 28, managed the last two campaigns of Democrat Health Shuler who captured the mountain congressional seat in 2006 from Republican incumbent Charles Taylor and then held on to the seat last fall against Ashevillle City Councilman Carl Mumpower. Most recently he was Whalen's Senate communications director.

He replaces Caroline Valand, who is now chief of staff for Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton.

David Young, the state party chairman from Asheville, hired Whalen after watching him up close.

Shuler is one of several people being courted by the national Democratic Party to challenge Burr next year.

Before working for Shuler, Whalen managed two state House races in Virginia.

Also hired was C. Payne Lucas Jr., who will be director of party affairs and development. He will focus on organizing and training. He worked last year for the election of Barack Obama, working as Franklin County Field director for the Campaign for Change in 2008.

He worked the previous 13 years in business and job recruitment.

Consider this post pure speculation.

But Dome noticed this recent report on CBN, a Christian news outlet, about Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's upcoming "Faith, Family and Values" tour.

The Brody File is told that top faith surrogates will hit the trail for Obama. Some of those high profile figures include Former Indiana Congressman and pro-life Democrat Tim Roemer, Catholic legal scholar Doug Kmiec, and author Donald Miller. You can also expect a soon to be named Evangelical North Carolina (red state) Congressman to travel the country as well.

Now, we can't confirm this report, so take it with a grain of salt. But if it's true, who is it?

Among Democrats, Reps. G.K. Butterfield, David Price, Mel Watt and Brad Miller have been big Obama supporters, but we don't think any of them as evangelicals. Reps. Mike McIntyre and Bob Etheridge are not likely to go on the hustings for Obama.

That leaves Rep. Heath Shuler.

In an interview with a Christian publication, Shuler resisted the label "born-again," but he is a pro-life Southern Baptist from the mountains. Facing his first run for re-election, he did not get heavily involved in the primary (and backed Hillary Clinton when he did).

Still, his Republican opponent is weaker than expected, so he might feel confident enough to do it.

A longshot: Republican Rep. Walter Jones, a convert to Catholicism who still talks about his faith like an evangelical, still had not endorsed John McCain as of Sept. 10.

Carl Mumpower's son has left his campaign.

The Republican Congressional candidate's son, Matt, stepped down after he was involved in a bar fight in Asheville Thursday night, the Hendersonville Times-News reports.

Matt Mumpower said the other man involved in the fight was intoxicated and attacked him first. He did not believe the fight was connected to the campaign.

"It had nothing to do with anything," he told the newspaper.

Mumpower, 24, was charged with simple assault and released on a $300 bond.

He had been volunteering as something close to a campaign coordinator for his father, who does not have any paid staff in his bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler.

Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated the newspaper.  

Carl Mumpower held his own campaign hostage.

The Asheville Republican, who is running against U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler, said he was suspending his camapign until local GOP leaders met his demands.

Among them: Declaring in writing that they share his core principles. Enough actually did that that he declared himself actively campaigning again on Friday.

"I have a reputation for being tenacious about things that matter," he said.

The Asheville City Council member said he is trying to help his party focus. He said it's "betrayed the promises and principles" that it was founded on, and he has called for President Bush to be impeached for failing to protect the nation's borders.

Eleventh District Chairman Stephen Duncan said local leaders were happy to affirm Mumpower's principles. 

"There are some who were caught by surprise because they supported these principles, always have," he said. (Char-O)

A piece of Dome trivia sent some readers on a weekend trip.

Bloggers with Scrutiny Hooligans, a left-leaning Web site based in Asheville, were intrigued by an item in our profile of Congressional candidate Carl Mumpower.

In the trivia section, we noted that Mumpower, a Baptist, owns The Church of the Little Flower, a Catholic church in Sodom, N.C.

In the ensuing road trip, the bloggers write that they learned that Mumpower bought the 40-acre property 13 years ago with an eye to convert it for weekend retreats, but his grandfather, a Baptist minister, insisted that he keep it consecrated.

So Mumpower spent "a good deal of time and money" fixing it up:

He has let many different people use the Church and the surrounding property for free - up until recently there were bi-weekly services held in the church, and a troop of local Boy Scouts have used the surrounding acreage for camping trips.

Mumpower is running for the Republican nomination to face U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler.

* Senate candidate Jim Neal wants to cut military spending, boost education spending, provide universal health care and publicly finance campaigns. (Independent Weekly)

* U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler's bill making it tougher to hire illegal immigrants gets support from his Republican challengers, John Armor, Spence Campbell and Carl Mumpower. (AC-T)

* Gov. Mike Easley, a UNC-Chapel Hill grad, doesn't think the annual matchup between N.C. State and UNC's football teams needs a nickname or trophy. (N&O)

* U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole likely to support override of veto by President Bush. Bill would spend $23.2 billion on water resources, including infrastructure. (AP)

John Armor has joined the crowded field of Republicans in the 11th Congressional race.

The Highlands lawyer, who challenged then U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor in the 2006 primary, says he will run for the Republican nomination to face U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler, a Democrat.

He will have to beat former Henderson County Republican Party Chairman Spence Campbell and Asheville City Councilman Carl Mumpower first.

Taylor has not said whether he will run again for his old seat. 

Blue Ridge Now reports that Armor is concerned about the loss of agriculure and manufacturing jobs, dislikes illegal immigration and wants to improve tourism. He also took a shot at his old rival.

"I don't know if Charles Taylor — being it is Halloween — can rise from the dead," Armor said. "The sad thing is he would probably win (the nomination) in a crowded field ... (but) he would get his hat handed to him in the general election."

Democratic candidates hope to use SCHIP to their advantage.

First out the gate was state Treasurer Richard Moore, who announced a health-care plan in late September that put him at odds with President Bush over expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Then came Jim Neal, the Chapel Hill investment banker who's running for the Democratic nomination for Senate. When he kicked off his campaign in early October, he said it was in part because of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole's vote against SCHIP.

In recent days, Larry Kissell's campaign has slammed U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes for voting against SCHIP and lieutenant governor candidate Dan Besse participated in a rally Wednesday for SCHIP.

They're not the only ones, though. The state Republican Party also sent out a news release attacking U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre, who twice voted against SCHIP, for switching sides on the veto override.

And Republican Congressional candidate Carl Mumpower praised Bush's veto.

Carl Mumpower has shared his definition of "envirojacker."

In an e-mail to Dome, the Asheville City Councilman and Republican Congressional candidate gives this explanation for the term, which he apparently coined in a recent press release:

Homo sapiens prone to selective use of facts, extreme views, and unsupported science related to environmental issues. This species is highly resistant to rational, realistic, and scientifically grounded environmental initiative and may, when challenged or denied, behave in an aggressive and destructive manner. There have been reports of associated tendencies toward manipulation and entitlement. 

Previously: Mountain Xpress proposes an alternative definition. 

An Asheville weekly confirms that "envirojacker" is a new word.

After noting that Asheville City Councilman and Republican Congressional candidate Carl Mumpower had used the word in a recent press release, we at Dome wondered if it was perhaps mountain slang that we'd not heard down here in Raleigh.

But a writer for the Mountain Xpress says she's never heard of it either. In addition, the alt-weekly suggests the word could be turned on its head:

Then again, the phrase "envirojacker," which combines "environment" and "jack," could have potential as a slang term among environmentalists. As in, those "envirojackers" have totally jacked the landscape with their coal mine, and they've done jack to clean up the pollution. 

That's the trouble with neologisms. They don't always end up meaning what you wanted them to mean.